A panoramic novel with a riveting mystery at its heart, STONE’S FALL is a quest to discover how and why John Stone dies. Chronologically, it moves backwardsâ€“from London in 1909 to Paris in 1890, and finally to Venice in 1867â€“ and in the process the quest to uncover the truth plays out against the backdrop of the evolution of high-stakes international finance, Europeâ€™s first great age of espionage, and the start of the twentieth centuryâ€™s arms race.

Iain Pears’ STONE’S FALL traces back the lives of arms mogul John William Stone and his beautiful wife Elizabeth (aka Lord and Lady Ravenscliff), as well as others around them. The densely detailed novel opens in Paris in March of 1953 as a journalist attends a funeral and is given a package.